The Enhanced Games is a planned international sports event where the athletes will not be subject to drug testing. It is headed by Aron D'Souza, an Australian businessman, [1] [2] [3] and is meant to take place in 2025. [4] Reactions from the sporting world have been generally negative, with commentators highlighting the safety risks of encouraging performance-enhancing drug use. [5]
The Enhanced Games is meant to be the first event of its kind to support performance-enhancing drugs and not follow the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). [6] Performance enhancing drugs will not be mandatory for participants. [7] [8] Such an event has been discussed hypothetically for many years, but never been realised. [9] [10] [11] Prosthetic limbs and shoe technology will be allowed. [5]
The event, announced in June 2023, is intended to be annual and to include track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and combat sports. Originally planned for December 2024, [12] [13] [14] a specific date and location are not set as of February 2024, [15] and the number of athletes "maybe a couple of thousand" according to D'Souza. [1] Brett Fraser, chief athletics officer of the organisation, says that the planned included sports are a "core suite of products", and can be improved upon in the future. [8] The scale will depend on funding and the location is planned to be a university campus or similar facility in the southern United States. [16] Aron D'Souza, president of the organisation, said in early 2024 that he now had the equity capital to fund the first event. [5]
By August 2023, representatives were saying that what would take place in 2024 would be a smaller "exhibition", with a "full event" taking place in 2025. [11] [14] In February 2024, D'Souza said that recent events "accelerates all of our timelines." [17] CNN said in October 2023 that it was an open question whether the games would ever take place. [16]
Aron D'Souza, an Australian businessman based in London, is president of the privately funded organisation. [18] [1] [6] He says he had the idea for the Enhanced Games in 2022 when noticing that many people at an American gym were obviously using steroids. [14] He was, together with billionaire Peter Thiel, involved in the 2013 Bollea v. Gawker lawsuit, which led to Gawker filing for bankruptcy. In 2015, he co-founded Sargon Capital with Phillip Kingston. [19] [20] D'Souza says
Athletes are adults ... and they have a right to do with their body what they wish - my body, my choice; your body, your choice, ... And no government, no paternalistic sports federation, should be making those decisions for athletes - particularly around products that are FDA regulated and approved. [1]
If we cut out all the waste, the layers of bureaucracy, the needless building of infrastructure, this event can be delivered for virtually nothing, and we can use all the surplus profits to pay the athletes, to invest in R&D, build better and better technology and build a bigger and bigger event. [5]
D'Souza sees the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as corrupt and greedy, and wants to eradicate the WADA, which he calls an "anti-science police force for the IOC." He also argues that the Olympic system doesn't pay athletes enough, [5] [4] and that the Olympics include too many sports that don't really matter. [17]
Olympians attached to the organisation include Brett Fraser, Roland Schoeman, and Christina Smith. [21] [9] Other people include geneticist George Church. [6] [22]
In January 2024, Enhanced Games announced that it had secured a multi-million dollar investment round from venture capitalists, including Thiel and Balaji Srinivasan. [23] [24]
The Australian swimmer and Olympic medalist James Magnussen said in February 2024 that he intends to come out of retirement to compete in the games in an attempt to break the 50m freestyle world record. D'Souza pledged a 1 million US dollar prize if he did break it, and Magnussen said that he will " ... juice to the gills ... break it in six months". [25] [26] He also said that the money could set him up for the next decade, that sport is about entertainment and is sometimes taken too seriously, [27] and "This is not for everyone, and it is certainly not something for young athletes." [28]
Fraser stated in July 2023 that over five hundred athletes had contacted him asking for more information. [8] In August, D'Souza said that he had 500 "sleeper athletes" who are "breaking world records in their basement and sending us videos of it" ready for competition. [14] In February 2024, he said that thousands of athletes interested in participating had contacted him. [4] CNN commented in October 2023 that so far none of these athletes appeared willing to speak publicly. [16]
The IOC stated "If you want to destroy any concept of fair play and fair competition in sport, this would be a good way to do it. ... This is completely at odds with the idea and values of the Olympic Games." [17] The Australian Olympic Committee called the idea "dangerous and irresponsible." [29] [30] A representative of the Swedish Olympic Committee said "I see it as ill-conceived, short-sighted and foolhardy and something other than sport." [31] UK Anti-Doping said in a statement that "UKAD's mission is to protect sport from doping cheats. There is no place in sport for performance enhancing drugs, nor the Enhanced Games." [32]
Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), said "farcical … likely illegal in many [US] states" and "a dangerous clown show, not real sport." [16] Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, said "No one within athletics takes the Enhanced Games seriously." [33] WADA stated that it "warns athletes and support personnel, who wish to participate in clean sport, that if they were to take part in the Enhanced Games, they would risk committing anti-doping rule violations under the World Anti-Doping Code." [4] The CEO of Sports Medicine Australia said that no member of the organization had expressed support for the Enhanced Games in their capacity as health care professionals. [28]
The CEO of the Australian Sports Commission said "I cannot see any responsible and ethical person thinking the Enhanced Games is even remotely sensible". [28] Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stated that the Biden administration had deep concerns regarding the Enhanced Games. [34]
Cyclist and Olympic gold medalist Anna Meares said "Unfair, unsafe — I just don't think this is the right way to go about sport." [18] Cyclist Joseph M. Papp, suspended for doping in 2006, referred to a 1988 Weekend Update skit saying "I don't think you'd actually see guys tearing their arms off ... A doping free-for-all just invites the most ambitious person to be the most reckless person, and to take the most drugs possible without literally killing themselves." [8] [35] Badminton player Susan Egelstaff stated "It cannot, and will not work. The danger is massive." [36] Swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Leisel Jones stated that while she would not participate herself due to the risks, she'd be interested in how fast people could get with doping, saying "If this clears out people who ... are doing illegal things in sport, if that clears them out our clean sport, that would be wonderful." [37] [38]
Swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Libby Trickett said it was understandable the Enhanced Games would attract fascination and interest, and that "I really, really, really hope that it's done under medical supervision because that's the only way I can kind of justify in my head something like this to go ahead." [39] Olympic swimmer Mark Foster expressed similar views, noting also that money has attraction. [40] Former Australian Football player Adam Cooney stated that "I would say that 90-95 per cent of the population would put their hand up and do [what James Magnussen did], they're not going to get anywhere near a world record obviously, but it is pretty enticing." [41]
Andy Miah, professor of science communication and future media at the University of Salford, called the Enhanced Games a "provocation", saying that "... the significant risk of athletes excessively enhancing and risking significant health complications is unaddressed by their materials. There is no mention of medical oversight in the competition on the website, from what I can see." Fraser said that "Each athlete must be under clinical supervision." [13] [8] and according to D’Souza, "We will focus on athlete safety by mandating athletes have pre-competition full-system clinical screenings including blood tests and EKGs." [16] Science writer Ronald Bailey said "Let fans decide which play they prefer." [6] Grigory Rodchenkov, former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, said it was a "danger to health, to sport." [16] Academic John William Devine said that "In a sporting world in which inequality of opportunity is already rampant, the removal of the doping ban would only deepen an existing moral failing." [42]
The Spectator opined that "In any discipline, we seek only to discover who is the fastest, or the strongest, the most accurate or the most coordinated. What's absolutely crucial, at least as far as retaining spectator interest goes, is that the advantage is natural." [43] The Daily Telegraph 's sports writer commented that "Remarkably it seems a more fleshed-out idea than the European Super League". [3] Cyclist wondered who would be willing to sponsor the event, noting that as of late July, no sponsors were mentioned on the Enhanced Game's website. [8] The Globe and Mail 's journalist said "I will admit, I am incredibly curious to see an "enhanced" person running faster than Usain Bolt, or swimming better than Michael Phelps. But I would not want to be that person, and I bet that neither will the serious athletes who have so far managed to avoid doping infractions." [44]
The Independent said that while the sporting world has been mostly dismissive, "D’Souza is intelligent and well-connected, and he has brought down big targets before. So when he says it’s going to happen, he is deadly serious." [5] The Sydney Morning Herald 's sport columnist said that "the Enhanced Games are a dangerous, iniquitous concept." [45] Outsports criticized D’Souza's use of LGBTQ language like "coming out" to describe athletes openly using performance-enhancing drugs. [46]
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories participating; by default the Games generally substitute for any World Championships the year in which they take place. The Olympic Games are held every four years; since 1994, they have been alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year period.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent doping in the United States with a performance-enhancing substance, the USADA provides education, leads scientific initiatives, conducts testing, and oversees the results management process. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USADA is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, which harmonizes anti-doping practices around the world, and is widely considered the basis for the strongest and strictest anti-doping programs to prevent doping in sport.
In competitive sports, doping is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors, as a way of cheating. As stated in the World Anti-Doping Code by WADA, doping is defined as the occurrence of one or more of the anti-doping rule violations set forth in Article 2.1 through Article 2.11 of the Code. The term doping is widely used by organizations that regulate sporting competitions. The use of drugs to enhance performance is considered unethical, and is prohibited by most international sports organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. Furthermore, athletes taking explicit measures to evade detection exacerbate the ethical violation with overt deception and cheating.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport. The aims of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention and the United States Anti-Doping Agency are also closely aligned with those of WADA.
Rebecca "Beckie" Scott, is a Canadian retired cross-country skier. She is an Olympic gold and silver medallist, and the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the sport of cross-country skiing. She is the founder of a national organization dedicated to improving health, wellness and education outcomes for Indigenous youth through sport and play. Scott was Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Athlete Committee, and gained notoriety for her position during the Russian (2014-2019) doping scandal. She served as an International Olympic Committee member by virtue of being elected to the IOC Athlete's Commission along with Saku Koivu between 2006 and 2014. She is married to the American former cross-country skier Justin Wadsworth., and they have two children, Teo and Brynn.
Competitors at the Olympic Games have used banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs.
Cheating at the Paralympic Games has caused scandals that have significantly changed the way in which the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) manages the events.
Sun Yang is a Chinese Olympic drug cheat and world-record-holding competitive swimmer. In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming. Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Olympic and World Championship gold medals at every freestyle distance from 200 to 1500 metres. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time world champion, he is the most decorated Chinese swimmer/drug cheat in history. In 2017, NBC Sports described him as "very arguably the greatest freestyle swimmer of all time".
The Russian Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee representing Russia. Its president is Stanislav Pozdnyakov. On 12 October 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee.
James Magnussen is a retired Australian swimmer and Olympic medallist. He was the 2011 and 2013 100-metre freestyle world champion, and holds the record for the fifth fastest swim in history in the 100-metre freestyle, with a time of 47.10, which until 2016 also stood as the fastest swim in textile swimwear material.
Yuliya Igorevna Stepanova is a Russian runner who specializes in the 800 metres track event. Stepanova was also an informant for World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about Russia's large-scale doping program. She and her husband, Vitaly Stepanov, exposed widespread doping in Russia.
The Russian Federation competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's fifth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics as an independent nation. The Russian Olympic Committee sent a total of 436 athletes to the Games, 208 men and 228 women, to compete in 24 sports. For the first time in its Olympic history, Russia was represented by more female than male athletes.
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), conducted a state-sanctioned doping programme on athletes in the 1980s and 1990s. The majority of revelations of Chinese doping have focused on swimmers and track and field athletes, such as Ma Junren's Ma Family Army (馬家軍).
Doping, or the use of restricted performance-enhancing drugs in the United States occurs in different sports, most notably in the sports of baseball and football.
Australia has been at the forefront in the fight against doping in sport. It was one of the first countries to establish a sports anti-doping agency and is a member of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Australia abides by World Anti-Doping Code. In 2010, Australian John Fahey was re-elected as President of WADA for a second and final three-year term which finished at the end of 2013. Australia like other major countries has been embroiled in major doping in sport controversies and issues.
The McLaren Report is the name given to an independent report released in two parts by professor Richard McLaren into allegations and evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia. It was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in May 2016. In July 2016, McLaren presented the first part of the report, indicating systematic state-sponsored subversion of the drug testing processes by the government of Russia during and subsequent to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In December 2016, he published the second part of the report on doping in Russia.
Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 48 Olympic medals stripped from Russia, four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who have been caught doping at the Olympic Games in the world, with more than 150.
Kamila Valeryevna Valieva is a Russian figure skater. She is the 2021 Rostelecom Cup champion, the 2021 Skate Canada champion, the 2020 Junior World champion, the 2019-20 Junior Grand Prix Final champion and the 2021 Russian national silver medalist.
Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics was held at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. The five events took place between 4 and 20 February 2022.